“Project: Lifeline” and “bReddi” Facebook Applications Now Available

As a result of an earlier Facebook challenge to call on software application developers, entrepreneurs, social networking enthusiasts, members of the public health and emergency response communities to design a new Facebook applications that would support individual and community resilience during disasters, two winning Facebook applications went live last week.

Those winning applications are Project: Lifeline and bReddi. Both of these applications allow users to identify lifelines, create and share personal preparedness plans and track the status of their Facebook friends in disaster-affected areas.

These applications can also both help families and friends to plan more easily, be better prepared when a disaster strikes and more reliably and efficiently communicate about each other’s health and safety.

As Dr. Nicole Lurie, assistant HHS secretary for preparedness and response and a rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service, states, “We know that people who have friends or relatives they can rely on for help are healthier and live longer than those who don’t, and that every disaster has the potential to impact health, so having people you can depend on for help is especially important during a disaster. That’s why we are encouraging everyone to identify their lifelines in advance.”

Click here to view a YouTube presentation on these new Facebook disaster preparedness applications.

If applicable, please pass this information along to those disaster preparedness, business continuity planning and emergency management teams where you work and in the communities where you live. Thank you.